Grants and Contracts Details
Description
According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, as many as 300,000 people in the
United States are living with spinal cord injury (SCI). Every year, there are approximately 12,000 new
cases of SCI in the United States. Less than 1% of those with SCI will experience complete recovery,
highlighting the need for effective therapeutic interventions after neurologic damage has occurred. A
common theme in the recovery hterature is that specific and intensive motor training induces adaptive
neurological reorganization, also known as plastic change. Additionally, persistent responsiveness to
sensory and motor input, and the plastic changes that result, can occur after incomplete SCI because
the spinal cord remains partially preserved and interconnected with the intact brain. This suggests that
interventions shown successful in stroke may also be effective in incomplete spinal cord injury.
Furthermore, several lines of evidence indicate that a non-invasive form of brain stimulation called
transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) facilitates motor recovery after stroke. However, there is
no available data about the extent to which this non-invasive stimulation will enhance motor training for
the legs in patients with incomplete spinal cord injury. Here, we propose a novel pilot project to evaluate
the effectiveness of tDCS delivered before leg motor training, to promote functional motor recovery in
patients with incomplete spinal cord injury. The central hypothesis is that patients with incomplete
spinal cord injury receiving tDCS prior to treadmill training will have improved motor function compared
to those who receive sham tOCS and treadmill training. The long-range goals are to: (a) maximi~e the
restoration of leg motor function in patients with incomplete spinal cord injury, (b) determine the impact
of this intervention on activities of daily living and quality of life, and (c) collect preliminary data in
preparation for a future, large-scale, federally funded study.
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 1/1/11 → 2/29/12 |
Funding
- Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation: $74,000.00
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